Judicial Depictions of Responsibility and Risk: The Erasure of State Accountability in Canadian Sentencing Judgments Involving Indigenous People

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dc.contributor.advisorTanguay-Renaud,Francois
dc.contributor.authorNussbaum, Sarah Jane
dc.date.accessioned2022-03-03T14:25:43Z
dc.date.available2022-03-03T14:25:43Z
dc.date.copyright2021-12
dc.date.issued2022-03-03
dc.date.updated2022-03-03T14:25:43Z
dc.degree.disciplineLaw
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation is set within the context of Canadas mass imprisonment of Indigenous people and centres on a critical evaluation of reported sentencing judgments. In particular, the dissertation examines some of the ways in which sentencing judges both draw attention to, and obscure, state accountability. The dissertation demonstrates that sentencing judges erase the role of the state in the criminalization of Indigenous people and in the construction of Indigenous people as risky. The result is that sentencing judgments rationalize and support the re-entrenchment, rather than the redressing, of the states oppression of Indigenous people. The dissertation is theoretical and descriptive, critically examining sentencing judges portrayals of Indigenous people and the state. The case studies are disheartening: the studies illustrate a few different ways in which sentencing law, despite purportedly aiming to repair systemic harm, continues to cement such harm. Yet the theoretical tools used to dissect sentencing judgments destructive practices can also assist in thinking through possibilities for change. The dissertation draws on theories that engage with the centrality of relationships in peoples lives (including peoples relationships with the state), the role of the state in generating and sustaining inequality, the interconnections between state efforts to contextualize Indigenous people and the reinforcement of stereotypes, and the resilience, strength, and diversity of Indigenous Peoples, communities, families, and individuals. These theories all support some existing proposals (and some current practices and possible new proposals) for pursuing decarceral approaches. The decarceral approaches that this dissertation addresses recognize that any sentencing analysis (including an analysis of how to assign responsibility for past criminalized conduct and an analysis of how to protect a community in the future) requires a consideration not only of criminalized individuals experiences but also of the states actions and inactions. A sentencing analysis must see and identify the state as having contributed to the criminalization of Indigenous people and to the construction of Indigenous people as risky. Additionally, the state must take accountability for its actions in historically and contemporarily inflicting violence on Indigenous people and for its potential to instead support Indigenous peoples resilience, safety, and sovereignty.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/39157
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectLaw
dc.subject.keywordsColonialism
dc.subject.keywordsCriminal law theory
dc.subject.keywordsCriminal sentences -- Canada
dc.subject.keywordsDangerous offender law -- Canada
dc.subject.keywordsDecarceration
dc.subject.keywordsFoetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
dc.subject.keywordsImprisonment
dc.subject.keywordsIndigenous Peoples
dc.subject.keywordsIndigenous women
dc.subject.keywordsPrison sentences -- Canada
dc.subject.keywordsPunishment
dc.subject.keywordsRace discrimination -- Canada
dc.subject.keywordsRacialization
dc.subject.keywordsRelational theory
dc.subject.keywordsResponsibility
dc.subject.keywordsRisk
dc.subject.keywordsRisk assessment
dc.subject.keywordsRisk assessment instruments
dc.subject.keywordsRisk assessment tools
dc.subject.keywordsRisk factors
dc.subject.keywordsSanctions
dc.subject.keywordsSentencing judgments -- Canada
dc.subject.keywordsSentencing law -- Canada
dc.subject.keywordsState accountability
dc.subject.keywordsSystemic discrimination
dc.subject.keywordsSystemic oppression
dc.subject.keywordsTextual analysis
dc.titleJudicial Depictions of Responsibility and Risk: The Erasure of State Accountability in Canadian Sentencing Judgments Involving Indigenous People
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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